100 Theme Challenge
by vernajast
Summary: 50 one-shots as part of the 100 theme challenge. SasuNaru, Kakashi crushing on his sensei, and YonKushina. A mixture of humor and tragedy in an AU timeline where Minato stayed alive to raise Naruto - circa Naruto chap 500.
1. Cookie

**_For the 100 Theme Challenge that I'm doing with MoiyaHatake._**

_**Series:** AU Timeline - When the Kyuubi was sealed inside of Naruto, Kushina convinced Minato to stay and raise their son. Other discrepancies: Obito survived Gaiden, Kakashi doesn't have the Sharingan, Kakashi has a hero-crush on Minato, which Minato is completely unaware of. "Family" who will make various appearances in this set of stories - Kakashi, Obito, Sasuke, Rin, Naruto, Minato, Kushina (in memories), Jiraiya, Tsunade. _

_**This piece:** Two years post-Kyuubi. __No warnings. Family sweetness.  
_

* * *

**"Eat, Kaka!"  
by vernajast **

**'Cookie' for 100 Theme Challenge**

Leaning back in his chair, Minato stretched his arms above his head in a very un-Hokage-like gesture, yawned, groaned, and shot an annoyed look at the clock hanging above the door. He was more than ready to go home, but he had promised himself that he would give Kakashi thirty more minutes. Then, he was going whether his former student was ready or not.

He'd been gone for a week, and frankly, he wanted..._needed _to be with his son.

Sighing softly to himself, he glanced down into an open drawer beside him, the picture he had been memorizing for the last hour gazing back.

* * *

**Two hours before.**

With a smiling toddler in tow, Kakashi moved from cleaning up the kitchen to folding clothes in the living room. Naruto settled down on the floor to play with his 'frocks' (miniature green frogs Minato just _had_ to get him last month) and the young shinobi lost himself in the monotony of domestic housework.

He didn't exactly regret volunteering to watch Naruto for his sensei—after all, it was an official mission, even if only B-rank, and he got to spend his time with his second favorite blond—but chasing after a toddler and keeping him occupied for a week was starting to wear him out. If it hadn't been for Obito bringing his little cousin over every other day, Kakashi was sure he and Naruto would have had some kind of a falling out, complete with name calling and hair pulling. They adored each other, but Minato was always teasing that Naruto brought out the lost child in Kakashi and sometimes the young man was tempted to agree.

Speaking of blond toddlers with a penchant for trouble, Naruto yanked Kakashi out of his internal reverie when he shoved a stubby little finger right inside the jounin's ear. "What the h—Please don't, Naruto." (The long repressed childish part of his mind supplied the word "poopy-head" and suggested he use it on the little fox next time. Kakashi politely declined.)

"Cookie!" Naruto wiggled his finger.

Kakashi squirmed, trying to get away without actually looking like he was running from Naruto's probing finger. No, no, he was only getting up to retrieve a teething cookie for the little blond, he assured himself. "Here you are, Naruto. Try not to make a mess." He knew the futility of those words now, but said them anyway. He was mimicking Minato-sensei's usual sunny optimism, but in his own 'innocent student' voice, which he often used on the older man when he wanted something (or when Minato made him blush, which occasionally still happened).

Dropping down onto the couch without any of his usual grace, completely _empty _of grace at this point, Kakashi picked up an orange pair of shorts that were clearly Naruto's and started folding. It wasn't that he didn't hear Naruto, per se, but that he was so used to him that he didn't deem him threat enough to track his movements. This turned out to be his downfall moments later when he looked up just in time to hear the word "Share!" yelled right into his face and feel a wet, slimy teething cookie smeared across his mask.

"Eat, Kaka! Eat!"

"Naruto-kun, I don't think Kaka's very hungry right now." He was peeling the clinging front of the mask away from his face and feeling extremely exposed, but also trying to be kind to Naruto, who didn't know any better. Kakashi was sure he had seen Minato eat at least one of the teething cookies when he thought no one was looking, so it was no wonder Naruto thought Kakashi would want one, too.

"I'm going to the laundry room, and I'll be back in a minute, all right?"

Wide blue eyes examined Kakashi, calculating the truth of the statement (was it the usual "in a minute" that ended up stretching to an hour-long minute?). "'Kay, Kaka." To Kakashi's surprise, the little hurricane was content to sit on the floor and play with his frogs some more. The jounin decided he might be able to like frogs after all if they managed to distract Naruto better than TV, a coloring book, and tugging Kakashi's hair combined.

Leaving Naruto to play for "a minute," Kakashi dropped his mask into the little sink in the laundry room and started scrubbing the gritty cookie that had already started to dry and cement in between the fibers of the fabric. _I'm not sure this is safe for children to eat..._

Hanging the dark mask over a rack beside the sink, he wandered back into the living room, but stopped in the doorway when he caught sight of his sensei's son. Naruto was curled into a little ball on the floor with one of his frogs, thumb tight between his lips, snoring softly. Kakashi smiled as he scooped up the little bundle of exhausted toddler.

Five days. Minato-sensei had been gone for five days. It seemed like a lifetime for both of them. "I miss your dad," he whispered, hugging Naruto to his chest and sliding down onto the couch. He situated them both comfortably and pulled out his book.

An hour later, the Fourth Hokage arrived early from his diplomatic mission to Wave and decided to go straight home. He needed to give the council a report on the treaty signing, but before appeasing the wrinkled elders, he would see his family. And by Minato's definition, Kakashi was definitely included in his family.

Grinning as he walked up the front steps, he paused when he realized his son's chakra was practically even and calm, a state only ever achieved when the boy was sound asleep. So, instead of a rousing "I'M HOME!" he found himself sneaking in through his own front door and quietly following the child's chakra into the living room.

The sight he found there caught him completely by surprise and, to his embarrassment, left him staring. It had been too many years since he'd seen his student's face; he had forgotten..._Kakashi. _Icha Icha Paradise lay abandoned on the floor beside the couch and Naruto lay snuggled on Kakashi's chest. Kakashi's cheek was pressed to his little forehead, and it wasn't the first time Minato had come to the abrupt realization that his teenage student loved Naruto as much as he did.

Minato grabbed the camera from the mantle beside him and took a few quiet steps closer, kneeling down and capturing first a photograph of the pair, and then a close up of Kakashi's sleeping face. He was tempted—more than tempted—to reach out and brush his fingers along Kakashi's chin, just because he could, but he resisted the urge, instead slipping the camera into his pocket and taking one last look.

_I'll be back later. _If Kakashi was going to show him his face, now, after so many years, it was going to be of his own free will. Besides, he still had a photo and...and the Hokage tripped on one of Naruto's frogs, gasped, grabbed the door frame for support.

Kakashi stirred at the sound, and Minato quickly disappeared.

Gray eyes searched the room, his instincts telling him it was okay, but he still needed visual confirmation. Brushing his fingers through the back of Naruto's hair, he sent a solemn prayer to Kushina to watch over Minato-sensei, suddenly worried for the man's safety, and muttered, "I miss your mom, too."

* * *

Alone in his office, donning a crooked smile, Minato gazed wistfully down at the photo for another few seconds, and then pushed the uneven desk drawer closed. The screech of warped wood-on-wood filled the Hokage's office, making him wince and earning the drawer a petulant glare. He'd been nagging one of the chuunin to fix it for weeks, but, of course, the request was caught up in the bureaucratic red tape that seemed to bind their village together as tightly as the Will of Fire, itself.

With the sound of it still echoing in his ears, he went over to the open window and gazed out at _his_ village, _his_ people, inclining his head to the passers by as mothers ushered their children home and shinobi returned from missions just in time for dinner.

_Yes, it's time to go home._

* * *

As suspected, when Minato arrived, Kakashi was already wearing his mask once more and the blond Hokage stifled a sigh of disappointment before presenting his two most precious people with a bright smile.

"Papa!" Naruto enthusiastically threw himself from Kakashi's gloved hands and into his father's arms.

Minato nuzzled his hair, kissing the top of Naruto's head. "Did you behave for Kakashi?"

And then it began: the toddler started babbling in his own unique toddler-language, only translatable by his father and, occasionally, his babysitter, Kakashi. The rough translation went something like..."Yes, I did! Kaka readed stories and colored and we had ramen and Obito bringed Sasuke to play with me and he cried so he had to go away and we slept on futons in the living room and went to the training fields and the playground and sawed the academy and one-day, Papa, I gonna go there and be a better ninja than you guys and I'll show that Sasuke all right..."

Something like that, yes.

Chuckling and squeezing his little boy, Minato looked over Naruto's shoulder to find Kakashi watching them with unreadable eyes. "Ne, Kakashi...stay for dinner?" He didn't realize he was actually speaking to Kakashi's lips, his eyes unable to stay away from what he knew was just there beneath a few millimeters of fabric.

There was a momentary hesitation that hurt Minato, just a little, and then Kakashi nodded.

"Good...I'm glad." He was surprised to notice the same hesitation in his own reply, and his smile turned a bit sheepish. Grabbing the package of teething cookies from the counter and narrowly avoiding his son's grabby hands reaching in to take hold of them all, he gave one to Naruto and handed him over to the younger shinobi. "I suppose I'll get started, then." He was going to cook something nice for Kakashi, he'd decided, for the gift he'd been given that afternoon.

While Kakashi sat reading with Naruto in a chair at the kitchen table, the blond man cut green onions and celery, letting Kakashi's rich voice wash over him, not really paying attention to the words. He watched them while the rice cooked, trying to fit the face captured in the secret photograph over Kakashi's mask. Imagining what he must look like when he frowned, as he'd been apt to do when he was younger, before the mask had effectively blocked him off. He imagined what Kakashi must look like when he smiled, and he thought that in those early days, he had seen it so rarely...

Minato pulled himself out of thoughts just in time to watch the most amazing thing, and later he would swear it happened slowly, the seconds passing as minutes. Naruto decided to share his cookie with Kakashi again, and since his eyes were averted to the book, the Great Prodigy Hatake Kakashi never saw it coming. Wet, gummy cookie was once again smeared across the mouth of his mask, and even through the fabric, his grimace was obvious.

The young man sighed and hung his silver head, and Minato could tell that Kakashi was already going through the various escape options. But leaving to get another mask would be rude, and surely Kakashi knew he wouldn't allow it when he could easily...just...wash it...

"Kaka! Eat!" Naruto clapped his pudgy hands and giggled.

Desperately, the younger man looked up at his sensei to find Minato's eyes wide and sparkling with mischief, lips curved into a sunshine-powerful grin.

"Sorry about that, Kakashi."

The Hokage didn't sound sincere.

At all.

Kakashi could feel his cheeks heating up behind the mask—safely hidden, but not for long—and he knew, just knew, that he was in trouble.

[ .end ]


	2. Heaven

**_For the 100 Theme Challenge that I'm doing with MoiyaHatake._**

_**Series:** AU Timeline - When the Kyuubi was sealed inside of Naruto, Kushina convinced Minato to stay and raise their son. Other discrepancies: Obito survived Gaiden, Kakashi doesn't have the Sharingan, Kakashi has a hero-crush on Minato, which Minato is completely unaware of. "Family" who will make various appearances in this set of stories - Kakashi, Obito, Sasuke, Rin, Naruto, Minato, Kushina (in memories), Jiraiya, Tsunade. _

_**This piece:** __Father-son diplomatic bonding time. Innocent SasuNaruSasu beginnings. _

* * *

**And Bless Sasuke, Too!  
by vernajast **

**'Heaven' for the 100 Theme Challenge**

Naruto sat crouched on his knees beside his father, tiny hands folded in prayer. The scent of incense made his nose tickle, and he was trying desperately not to sneeze.

"And b-bless 'Shina and Papa and Kaka and...and bless Sasuke, too!" When he was finished, he concentrated on keeping his eyes closed and sitting still, two very difficult things to do at the same time. He was already starting to wiggle after only a few minutes.

The weight of his papa's hand on his shoulder prompted Naruto to open his eyes, and he grinned up at the older man. "Did I do good, Papa?"

"Yes, Naruto, you did _well_." The subtle prompting to correct his son's questionable grammar was studiously ignored by the boy who had noticed a butterfly flittering about his papa's hair like it was a sunflower.

As the solemn caravan of officials started to move away from the shrine and back toward the carriages, Naruto danced ahead of his papa. He skipped and jumped, sang nonsense songs to himself, and spun around in his own set of official robes. They belled out around him, and the barely-there breeze was magnified by cool cloth sinking to settle against his legs once more.

"Naruto, don't get too far ahead of me." His papa's voice called him back, amused, but there was that hint of something else, too. It was the same as the other parents when they said things like, 'Son, come away from him and play over here.' or 'Sweetheart, I think we'd better go now...' Except unlike the others, Naruto's papa never looked angry when he said it. Or frightened. He only looked a little sad.

Naruto didn't look back at his papa because he knew that sad face would be there to greet him. Instead, he just stopped and waited for him to catch up, and then took his hand.

Thinking about his classmates and their parents, Naruto couldn't help but notice that his other hand was empty. He didn't have a mother to hold it so that he could feel secure and safe nestled between two loving adults. Sometimes there was his Kaka, but Kakashi didn't really like to hold Naruto's hand while his papa was. It was really kind of weird.

When they reached the carriage, his papa picked him up and put him on the top step, but instead of climbing inside, the little boy turned around, an unusually solemn frown twisting his little lips. "Papa, why did 'Shina go to Heaven?"

The Hokage looked around, but if anyone had heard the question, the surrounding sycophants and advisors were pretending they hadn't. He knelt close to Naruto and hugged him, the boy becoming pliant as soon as his papa's intentions were realized.

"Because she loved our village as much as you do, Naruto. Now get inside the carriage."

Naruto complied immediately, mostly because he was rolling the words around in his head. It wasn't until the carriage lurched as the horses took off that he was pulled from his thoughts. "Then...then, I'm gonna go to Heaven, too."

"One day," his papa replied quietly, eyes passing blindly over the scrolling scenery, "but not for a very long time."

That answer seemed to pacify the boy's curiosity for a while. He started chatting about the clouds and the hills and the open countryside that was so different from the forest that surrounded Konoha.

They were on an important diplomatic mission for the village, visiting some of the less prominent parts of Fire Country alongside the daimyo and his wife. It was a rare treat for Naruto to be allowed to accompany his papa on official business, and if it wasn't for the ugly looks some of the adults had given him along the way, he would have said he was _being really, really, REALLY good!_ He wasn't sure what he'd done to upset them.

Not that it mattered. It seemed like someone was always upset with him for something. Or for no reason at all. _Except Sasuke._

True, the other boy was sometimes angry at him or annoyed, but Naruto always knew _why_ and his friend didn't give him _those_ kinds of looks.

Besides, Sasuke was his best friend. He never ever stayed mad for long.

It was somewhere between thoughts of Sasuke and Heaven and keeping a running commentary on the rolling countryside that Naruto's eyes widened and he went silent. He took on a slightly panicked expression that his papa had come to dread over the short five years of his son's life, and then jumped out of his seat, wobbling when the carriage hit a bump, and flopped over onto his papa's lap - all the while frantically yanking on the Hokage's sleeve. His fears finally slid out in a single long spool of words: "Papa, Papa, what about you? Will you go to Heaven, too? And Kaka? And, and, and what about Sasuke? He'll go to Heaven, right? You don't think he'd go without me, do you?" The little boy looked almost on the verge of tears by the time he had gotten it all out, his voice fading to a near silent whisper.

With a gentle smile, the Fourth Hokage wrapped an arm around his son's shoulders and pulled him against his side. "Naruto, we'll all go when it's time, and that includes you and Sasuke." He kissed Naruto's golden head and hugged him tightly. "But I don't think Sasuke's going _anywhere_ without you, so don't worry, all right?"

Naruto wished he could believe it-and maybe he did a little, since his papa was saying it-but deep down, he wondered if that was really true. Would Sasuke always be his best friend? Would he always stay by his side? He sincerely hoped so and quietly mumbled another prayer to the spirits just to make sure.

When Naruto had been disturbingly quiet for a while, Minato leaned down just enough to see that the little boy had been lulled into sleep by the rhythm of the carriage on the rough road. He kissed Naruto's head again and closed his own eyes, happy for a respite from hyperactive conversation.

It wasn't that he didn't like talking to Naruto, but the boy could wear the most understanding person's patience thin. As it was, Minato had a headache from the incense, from the constant barrage of admirers and advisors, and the need to keep an eye on Naruto at all times. He loved his son very much, and the looks that some of the townsfolk gave him when they realized who that 'cute little boy' was gave him chills.

_Whatever happens, Naruto, this moment, right now, that's Heaven for me._ Cracking his eyes open, he squeezed Naruto's shoulder and kissed his head again. He missed Kushina, but he was thankful she had left him this most precious gift.

[ .end ]


End file.
